The Wheel Weaves
by Taim alLorn
Summary: This story contains the happenings of a different age, an age long past knownof now not even to the legendary Aes Sadai, events known to no one. Until now...Please R
1. Wolves

Disclaimer: I do not own WHEEL OF TIME or any of it's characters. All original characters are my own, although some are close to the WHEEL OF TIME characters.  
  
A shadow passed across the mountains, mountains known by some as the Bombadillian Range. For in these mountains lay the ruins of a city once known by many. Now the once great city of Bombadil was known only to a few.  
  
The shadow passed through the closest town. The town was quite small, really more of a small village than a town, and was home to maybe 40 villagers. Several small farms dotted the land west of the village. The village was named Brie. The farms around it were mostly abandoned after a long harsh winter.  
  
Taim al'Lorn was practicing the sword in a clearing in the forest on the opposite side of his father's farm. He did not often get a chance to practice, for he always had plenty of work to in the spring. Usually they would be two weeks into spring by now, but winters clutches would not relent on the village of Brie, let alone the farms surrounding it.  
  
He was not very good with a sword because of this lack of practice. He often hit himself with his bundled practice sword; several spots that were hit most often were starting to bruise. Even with this he was getting better do to the recent practice he had been getting.  
  
Off in the distance a man screamed and practically an entire flock of birds flew out of a tree. It was probably no more than a hundred paces into the glade beside the clearing.  
  
By then it was close enough to here someone running, hard. Maybe fifty paces to his left. Quickly, Taim dropped his practice sword, the thin wood would be quite useless, and picked up his real sword given to him by his father. He did not know how a small town farmer had come by the sword; it's balance was perfect, and it's blade never dulled. It was doubtlessly a thing made by the One Power, forged by some Aes Sadai, long since probably dead. This sword was probably worth more than their entire farm and everything on it. The sword itself would be pretty useless in his hands and anyone with even moderate ability with a sword would be able to cut him down like an old dead tree.  
  
Out of the bushes stumbled a man large enough to be a small bear. Running after him came three large wolves. The man, Taim recognized to be his friend Will Rosbin. In an attempt to help his friend out of a sticky situation, Taim leaped in front of the wolves and flashed his sword. The wolves stopped, but the fur on their backs rose and they growled in last futile attempt to intimidate him, but even though fear surged through his veins, he didn't waver an inch. Slowly the wolves backed off, still growling. Just before the lead wolf returned to the ever growing darkness of the forest he turned and howled, eventually several answers made their way to the clearing. Slowly but steadily eyes began to appear through the murk.  
  
In unison the two young men turned to each other and said," maybe it's time to run." Then Taim said," My house, come on!"  
  
Then they simply ran, as hard as they ever had. Through the opposite side of the glade, they could barely see the fields of Taim's farm. They ran straight through the fields, not even bothering with the paths, they knew the wolves wouldn't.  
  
The house was just down the fields. The barn was right next to the house, but maybe an extra fifty meters past the house. He looked to the barn and of course there was his father.  
  
Thom was just letting the sheep out to pasture. Taim looked back and stumbled with fear. Behind them was a pack of no less than thirty wolves.  
  
He turned back to Thom and yelled, "Dad, get the sheep back in the barn! Wolves!" Of course by that time Thom had seen the boys. When he saw the wolves, though his face went white, he went right to work. By then, there wasn't much time.  
  
They were maybe twenty-five paces away from the barn and the wolves were maybe another twenty more behind them. A good thing though, is that Thom works quickly. Five paces from the barn, he was just waiting for Taim and Will.  
  
As soon as they reached the barn they went to work closing the huge barn doors; Thom and Taim on one and will in the other. Will was really strong, of course that was expected of a blacksmith's apprentice. Because of will's strength he even finished before them.  
  
Finally they were all inside, safe and sound until the wolves got there. Several ran right into the door with a crack and a yelp, the rest scratched at the door or went around to search for another entrance.  
  
"Weltraman Rosbin!" Thom roared, "Did you bring wolves down on my farm again? I told you when you came looking for Taim, them get him for breakfast. Never did I tell you to bring enraged wolves with!" Taim would have pointed out to his father that Will didn't like being called by his full name but it didn't seem smart.  
  
A horse whinnied in the stalls and for the first time Taim saw that there was an extra horse in the stalls. There was Canter, Thom's sturdy mare, and wild fire Will's exuberant steed.  
  
Suddenly, like getting hit with a bucket of cold water, Taim realized Thom was still yelling, and now it was at him.  
  
"Are you listening boy!?" Thom demanded in an exasperated voice.  
  
"Oh, What?" Taim asked in as meek and innocent a voiceas he could muster without sounding completely whipped.  
  
"Did you try waving that fool sword at them?" and at Taim's nod he added, "Do you not know they don't like the gleam of metal."  
  
But Taim knew that wouldn't anger them this much. Taim didn't know anything that would. That's when they saw the rays of light through the door. The wolves were scratching holes through the wood doors. Luckily, after a while of growing holes, the scratching lessened and the hungry yipping of the wolves was growing faint. Soon, each different wolf was gone. Unfortunately, by then the holes were big enough to fit a fist through.  
  
A relieved sigh passed through the three of them as they knew they were safe.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 


	2. Catching Up

Disclaimer: I do not own WHEEL OF TIME or any of it's characters. All original characters are my own, although some are close to the wheel of time characters.  
  
2  
  
CATCHING UP  
  
Slowly they crept out of the barn, weapons ready to fend off whatever lay concealed out side of the ruined barn door. As they slid silently past the door all they had was they soft rustle of a leaf being crushed under soft boots, but they all herd it and they all spun.  
  
Luckily, it was only Taim who swung his weapon for he was off balance and the swing that was aimed for the intruder's chest was now directed more toward his head. The only thing that saved the young man standing before them from the undoubtedly painful experience of having his head cleaved in half was that as they turned, he stumbled and tripped over a rock, dropping his head a hand's length lower, making the sword take only a tuft of his hair.  
  
This lack of a chopped head made the young man very happy. Taim was also quite happy about this particular occurrence, for this was not just some cutpurse trying to slit his throat and take his money. No, this young man didn't need to slit anything to take Taim's, or even Will's money. They were the only ones still foolish enough to gamble with Mat.  
  
Mathewin Therin, or Mat, was another young man of Brie. He was about the same height as Will but he was still a hand shorter than Taim. Mat and Will were both tall compared to most, but Taim still towered over them. He had never seen anyone taller than himself, man or woman.  
  
Mat had unusually good luck with anything that involved pure chance, so he excelled at gambling. Many thought he cheated and hid cards up his sleeves, or something paranoid like that. But they could never prove it. So, they just didn't gamble against him anymore. The pots were not high, but for the people of Brie, a few coppers were a fortune, and Mat always won. Cards, dice, it didn't matter, he almost never lost. The people were sick of losing their hard earned few copper coins to a nineteen-year-old boy. All three of them were nineteen. Mat was the youngest by a week and a half, and Will was the oldest by a week.  
  
Taim liked to watch the men of Brie lose their coppers for a last futile attempt to win against Mat. Mat's amazing luck was always better if he or will was there, and even more so if they were both there. Mat thought of them as a kind of good luck charm, and when he won big he would even give them some of his winnings just for being there.  
  
After almost killing Mat and then just standing there like a brain dead hic, Taim finally asked, "What are you doing up here? Didn't you see the wolves?"  
  
"Of course I saw the wolves, that's why I came." Mat said. "I saw Will lumbering through the woods like the Dark One himself was chasing him. Then I saw about. thirty wolves following through the trees, growling and barking like you took their favorite bone. I just grabbed my bow and joined the chase."  
  
They comprehended this for a while and then Thom said, "Quick everyone to a horse. Mat, I'm sure you have your own, yes? Good. Taim you can ride Wind, her saddle is still broken so you'll have to ride her bare back. Now, mount!"  
  
They rode through the thicket in silence, except for the sound of hooves and the occasional whicker, trying not to attract the attention of the wolves they were attempting to pass.  
  
Through the journey they only had one incident in which Mat's steed, Chance, found a well placed root which sent both horse and rider toppling to a heap on the cold, wet, forest floor. Miraculously, neither was hurt.  
  
Once they were back to the chase, moral was low, and Mat's joke about him having the Dark One's own luck got only a stern "Shhh!" from Thom and lower moral.  
  
About half way to Brie, they still had not passed the wolves, but of their 'quarry they could see only two. 'Scouts', Taim thought, 'Nowonder they were going so fast.' "We've past the main group." He said as he maneuvered closer to Thom' s horse.  
  
"I know." Thom replied "I didn't want you to be intimidated by having a pack of thirty or so wolves behind us." He moved closer to Mat and said, "You've got your bow, do you think you could take out the scouts before they can give warning? Good. Remember, two shots each. One won't kill.  
  
Taking this to heart Mat sent two of his broad head arrows into the first wolf catching it first in the side, then through the neck. After that it went down with a quite, curdled yelp as blood filled its trachea, if he could hit the other one like that, they would have no problem. But of course Mat's luck could be good or bad depending on the situation. This time his luck tried to trip his horse, so right as mat firedhis shots at the last wolf, his horse triped in a well-placed rut making Mat's shots be worse than missing. The first of this set of broad head arrows hit a tree thirty yards off, but the second hit the wolf in the hindquarters. It let out quite a screech but kept going. It stumbled around squealing with the arrow still in it's butt.  
  
"Well, if we didn't alert the rest of the wolves we sure warned the town." As if to prove his point, the wounded wolf ran into the next tree. It let out a final yelp and fell into a crumpled heap on the mossy, forest floor.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Please review. I'm yet to get any reviews but I'm posting this anyway. Plus, I'm getting worried that no one's reading my story, and that is why I put it on fanfic. So review 


End file.
